vol.25

What Christmas looked like for us this year...

Christmas this year was not quite what we had expected it would be. Originally we had planned to be in the cabin for Christmas, and it would have been really nice if we could have been. But we were just glad we had a roof over our heads, and heat. I was worried most about the clutter and trying to figure out where we were going to put the kids gifts after Christmas. But we scaled back a little on our gifts, and they got more clothes than toys this year. They are both at that age where they appreciate getting clothes! :) 

We havent had many sunny days lately, and that has helped keep the temperatures a little warmer up here in the mountains. We have had over 2 feet of snow for the last week or so, and it doesnt look like it is going anywhere soon.

Fortunately my mom is also up here with her Jeep during the day, so when Jaydon's working I can ride with her... because our Acura (the car barely visible on the right) is much too low to get around in... even if we did cough up the money for snow tires.

I got something I've been wanting for months now! :) A CBTL Kaldi esspresso maker + the milk frother. Makes yummy espresso's at the push of a button. :)

We opened our presents the morning of Christmas Eve, and went down to my sister's house on Christmas morning.I took a few pictures on the way down to their house.

I'm slowly getting a little more relaxed while riding on these wintery roads. I havent driven them much yet, but I still get tense just riding... waiting for a deer to jump out of nowhere! Its been an adjustment. We never had much snow for very long back home.

We are still waiting on our taxes to be validated, so we are a couple weeks away from possibly being able to move in... but we will need to have the road to the cabin plowed, because we cant even get down to it right now! I'm a little worried we waited too late. Should have had it plowed when the first big snow came. On the plus side we've met almost all of our neighbors now. Most of the surrounding property is vacation homes, so they aren't always there... but they seem like really nice people.

Anyhow, we arrived at my sistsers around 9 AM, and the kids were definitely anxious! I've always loved my sister's unconventional tree topper. :)

Although this year they cut their own tree down, and it was a little on the sparse side... so they had to improvise, and tie their road sign to the tree.

Since my parents are also in an RV now, it is nice that my sister is in a house! We all have somewhere to go! :)

I hope you had a Merry Christmas! I'm really hoping the next couple of weeks go by quickly! We are SO excited to get into the cabin!!

Winter in Winthrop

Tuesday on our really cold sunny day, mom and I took the kids to Winthrop. It was really really pretty!

Also, icy and cold. I slipped and fell on the ice while crossing the street. I was holding my camera and managed to protect it when I fell, but hurt my elbow, arm and leg in the process. I'm still bruised and sore, but it could have been worse. I think I need a pair of snow boots with some traction. The fuzzy boots I was wearing didnt provide much in that department.

Journey can now fit Trinitys purple coat. Where has the time gone!?

I am really looking forward to coming up here in the spring/summer and finally trying one of those homemade waffle cones. They smelled AMAZING when we came up last August!

We passed an antique store on the way in, and will have to stop next time! By the time we were heading back it was starting to cool down even more, and the roads were getting a little icy. :)

Rustic Holiday Tags- deer + woodgrain- Repost

I wanted to re-post these printable tags I designed last winter, for anyone who missed them! They are free, just do not use them for commercial use. :)

I used twine kraft paper and some yarn in the styling ideas above. Today it is snowing yet again. Kind of mixed feelings about that. Good in the fact that it will be a little warmer, due to the cloud cover. Yesterday was gorgeous, but COLD! 8 degrees when Jaydon left for work. My mom drove me around in her Jeep (the acura is still not snow worthy) and I snapped some pictures around the cabin. Today would have been our closing date, and oh how I wish it still were! Yesterday the trailer door froze shut! We had to use a snow shovel to break the ice. We've been running the furnace in the trailer the last couple of days. We finally caved, because it got cold enough! We have 3 portable heaters in here, and up until yesterday they had kept it almost a little too warm in here. But, it sure was pretty!

This was taken about a mile from the cabin:

So. Pretty. :) I hope you are staying warm somehow! We went to Winthrop and did some shopping. There is an antique/home store there that I LOVE. I have to exercise restraint everytime I go in. After we get into the cabin I'm going to back and purchase some goodies.

I hope you are staying warm somehow!

A winter wonderland...

We got over a foot of snow last night here in Carlton, WA. Trins school was delayed 2 hours, and I had to keep her home because I had no safe way of getting her down to school. Normally she rides to school with Jaydon in the mornings, but the delay kind of made that impossible. Saturday we finally made the hour and a half drive to Wenatchee, where I happily spent 3 hours inside Target! I was having magor withdrawals, and we had not done ANY christmas shopping. It was then or never! It had started out snowing when we left... and because the 4WD in the avalanche hasnt been working the greatest (the alignment is off really bad, and it seems worse in 4WD) we took the Acura. Mom called when we were in Target and advised us to head back after Target... even though we really wanted to make the most of our trip... we took her advice. The roads were definitely slick on the Methow highway. It didnt help that half of the highway hadnt been plowed. We almost didnt make it back to the RV park. At one point we were trying to make it up a hill and the car started sliding to the right of the enbankment with no guard rail... well the truck behind us thought that we were prompting him to pass, and so he started to pass us, and about then the car gained traction and jerked us toward his direction. It was scary! Then because we had to slow down so much we couldnt get up the hill. We were slowly edging closer to the enbankment... when we finally gained a little traction and slowly worked our way up the hill.

Living up here, it is not uncommon to see at least one deer on the Methow Valley Highway. I was SO thankful that the only deer we seen was when we pulled into the trailer park... right in front of our trailer.

Otherwise, I'm not sure we could have avoided hitting one with the roads as slick as they were. We've already hit one deer in the Avalanche, but fortunately it didnt do any damage, and the deer walked away. We need to put studded tires on both vehicles, and that is not an expense we were thrilled with paying, but after Saturday night... it is definitely a priority! Today we are hoping he can get studs on the avalanche. The acura is definitely necessary since it has street tires on it.

It sure is pretty up here though. I'm starting to appreciate it more, maybe adjusting to the differences. People up here run at a slower pace in life. The owner of the RV park said they refer to it as "Methow Time" :) Trin likes school... but says she doesnt like it as much as Prosser. I think starting in the middle of the year may play a part in that, but she has a nice teacher and a couple of good friends.

I did a load of laundry yesterday and snapped the above pic while switching out the load! Our gray tank froze yesterday, and Jaydon spent all day trying to thaw it... only to find out our black tank is froze as well.. and that one didnt thaw... oh the joys of rving full time. A friend offered the use of a kerosene heater that should thaw it... so he'll be dealing with that tonight after work.

Last week I seen 4 bald eagles from the kitchen table. That was pretty neat! When I took the picture one had flown away. I was glad Jaydon had left his binoculars!

We were sure anxious to close on our house this Wednesday.... but we found out that our accountant neglected to file our taxes in April. Something about forgetting to get an e-file permission form signed... We had our check mailed in time for the deadline, but apprently our papers were not filed. So Jaydon had I had to go into the closest IRS office and file in person. We did that last Monday... and it will take 4-6 weeks for the IRS to validate our taxes... and we can't close until that happens. So disappointing. We were really hoping to get into the cabin by Christmas, but it looks like it wont be until the 21st of January. Patience is a virtue isnt it? I wish this trailer of ours was more winter rated! :)

At any rate, it doesnt look like I will be able to re-open my etsy shop the first of January like I had thought. It may be more like the first of February... and I know some of you were waiting to place orders. I wish I could help, but my printer is in storage 3.5 hours from here.

Well I hope you are ready for the Holidays! I'm finally feeling that way. Although this year will be very different, lol. When I was 16 we were building a house and we had Christmas inside a travel Trailer, so it can be done... I just need to brace myself for the clutter... it stresses me out! I have every nook and cranny filled with stuff... so I'll need to get creative. :)

We have officially moved out of our house and handed over the keys!

This last weekend we brought up the last of our vehicles and moved the rest of our stuff from our house in Prosser!!

It seems so hard to believe that the burden of prepping + selling + moving from the house is actually over. It has been a long past 3 months... and there is no way we could have finished the painting and moving without our family and friends. So thankful that we have people willing to help us move... even if it meant we were moving away... wait... maybe thats why they were so eager! ;) ha hah...

My sister was even brave enough the weekend before last to keep our girls over the weekend without her husband to help referee... since he had rode the 3.5 hour drive down to help us move!

Seeing the house almost empty sure brought back memories from when we had first moved in... although it was in AWFUL shape at that time. It needed some TLC + a heart transplant. ;) So many good memories happened in this house!

But, we are ready to move onto this next chapter in our life... and looking forward to settling into our new house. Right now we feel a little homeless! Having our things scattered in various storage units. :) Now that things are finally settled in Prosser, we may actually start to feel like we live up here in the Methow Valley. :)

We are slowly adapting to the cold, and having to watch out for deer!

Moving is an adventure! Have you missed me posting? I've missed it... it takes me forever to load pics, and half the time my pages time out before they load up!! Off the grid is bittersweet.... when we move in, we will no doubt need to get a land line and use DSL for internet. :)